Streaming movies at home

Here are some ways you can watch streaming movies at home

The cost of a night out at the movie theaters is prohibitive. No one can take their families out for a night on the town unless they are prepared to spend upwards of $40 or $50 -- before they even make it to the snack counters.

Cost is just one of the reasons that theater goer numbers are on the downward spiral.The ability to watch a growing library of movies and television shows right from the privacy and comfort of your own couch is another. The real surprise these days is that anyone goes to the movies at all.

Streaming movies at home has not only become all the rage but it is easier than it has ever been and for the most part, is cheaper than ever before.

Thanks to the technology of the day, there are several different ways people can watch movies at home. Depending on just how high tech you want to get, you can watch movies from the bedroom, the bathroom and while you are pulling weeds.

Netflix

The most well known broadcast streaming service in the world, Netflixstarted out as a company that would mail you DVDs of select movies, allowing you to keep them however long you wanted, return them through the mail and receive the next movie on your list.

While they still do this, the company has largely downshifted from that model to one where you can stream movies to your computer, your smart phone, your mobile device or your television given the right devices. A low monthly fee allows you to stream as many of the movies or televisions shows you want to any device that is outfitted correctly.

Apple TV&iTunes

The Apple TV is one device that has made it especially easy to stream pretty much any movie or television show you can think of to your television. As long as you have internet connection, and an HDMI cable and connection you can get streaming video from several different sources. The newest version of Apple TV actually has an application that will allow you to watch Netflix should you have an account, but the Netflix movie library is limited to movies that came out on video several months ago, or television episodes that are usually over a year old.

Where Apple TV makes its bones is the access it gives anyone who has an iTunes account and/or an iPad or iPhone. Using an Apple ID you can gain access to any movies or television shows you have downloaded to your computer, iPad or iPhone. You can also purchase or rent a massive amount of movies or television episodes right through the Apple TV device and stream it through your television set.

Apple TV also allows you to watch YouTube on your television set, giving you a third option for watching the small amount of movies that are uploaded on that website.

Amazon Video On Demand

Created as a competitor to both iTunes and Netflix, Amazon has put together their own Video on Demand service that works like both. You can pay a monthly fee in order to stream some of their library on your mobile device, computer or to your television if you are using a device that supports the service. Unlike Netflix, the one drawback of Amazon's streaming service is that it is not as prevalent as Netflix is as far as devices that support that library of movies and television episodes. A Google TV set is the number one place to watch Amazon's Video on Demand on an actual television with the added bonus that YouTube and Netflix are available for those TVs as well.

Some Blu-Ray players also offer the ability to watch different streaming video options including Amazon's Video on Demand, Netflix, and Blockbuster which has gotten into the on demand video market a bit late.